


They Sent Me Back, Too

by KIKarchived (Krystalicekitsu)



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fix-It, Gen, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-02 09:24:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/367469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krystalicekitsu/pseuds/KIKarchived
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'These are very strange people,' Vincent thought. 'I wonder if it’s the Lifestream or they come pre-wacky.' Vincent was betting on 'pre-wacky'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	They Sent Me Back, Too

**Author's Note:**

> This was _supposed_ to be a fic done solely as a one-time deal, and now I'm finding myself rather attracted by it.

Vincent twisted fitfully in his sleep as pervading green accosted him. As the dream materialized around him, he sighed, “Aeries.”

The flower girl giggled behind him and as he swung to face her, she neatly draped a wreath of bright golden flowers over his head. At his bewildered look, she giggled again, “I think they suit you.”

And so they did.

He glanced over to the dark haired SOLDIER casually lounging in the distance and gave, and received, a nodded acknowledgment.

“You are not the one I usually see in my dreams,” he commented idly. Were this other than a dream, he would have been sad and probably guilty with that statement. The simple, and pure, peace that permeated every inch of the place, that seemed to ooze out of her like a comforting fog, even the endless field of rainbow-hued flowers all made that nothing more than a passing mote of dust.

“Yes,” she replied, “I know.” And it seemed the peace didn’t extend to her, for she sighed sadly.

“Aeries?”

The SOLDIER cast sympathetic eyes on the flower girl and Vincent knew, though he didn’t know how, that the man was restraining himself from rushing to offer comfort.

“You wouldn’t remember much, I suppose,” she said with a wistful smile.

“Remember?”

“We-… I- _They_ used to send back all of you. But, again, you wouldn’t remember that. We’ve tried sending back Cloud, but…” she bit her lip and the SOLDIER’s eyes filled with grief, “that doesn’t always work, and most of the time, he dies. The times he doesn’t… well, he doesn’t last too long after.”

Her eyes turned from sadness to frustrated- not quite rage- anger, “If She would just _leave it_ …! She doesn’t need all of them! And for him to remember, each and _every **time**_ …” she looked at him with that grief again, “And every time, so **alone** …”

Aeries drew herself up to her full, if meager, height, “Well, _this time_ it’s **my** turn,” she shook a finger in his face as he drew back, as if he were some recalcitrant student not minding Teacher, “and, by Holy, I’m gonna do it **_right!_** ”

She settled back down again, “And you’re going to help me.”

Vincent blinked.

A futile, restrained smile broke through the SOLDIER’s face, and soon he was laughing uproariously at the scene (if oddly silent).

Dryly, Aeries glanced behind her, “Ignore the laughing idiot, please. My boyfriend has an odd sense of humor.”

 _These are very strange people,_ Vincent thought. _I wonder if it’s the Lifestream or they come pre-wacky._

He was laying a hundred gill on the ‘pre-wacky’ side.

“Where was…?” Aeries pondered, absentmindedly stroking a flower like one would a cat, “Oh, yes. You are going to help me.”

“Help you?”

“Yes, see, Gaia can send Her Marked children anywhere She wishes. It takes quite a bit of energy, the more She folds upon Herself, the more energy She must spend, until it just doesn’t make sense to go further because the Whole wouldn’t be contained enough to withstand the leap and then the leap doesn’t gain enough advantage, so we end up wasting a Cycle until enough is returned for Her to try again. The good thing, though, is that once the Cycle is started, everything resets itself like it was in the Beginning, so nothing is ever Lost.”

The gunman was sure his eyes were spinning from the complete nonsense that was that explanation. He tried to get even a little bit out, “We-I, am going somewhere?”

Aeries giggled, “Oops, sorry. I keep forgetting you’re not a Certa. But yes, that is the gist of it. Except you asked the wrong question.”

“Did I?” Vincent was intrigued.

“Yes, it’s: some _time_.”

Vincent took a moment to wrap his head around that and to stop the excited jump in his gut, “Some _time_?” and realizing he was beginning to sound much like a parrot, he continued, “And why wasn’t this accomplished before?”

“Because it took too much of the Whole,” Aeries explained simply, and Vincent was beginning to think that too much time in the Lifestream was detrimental to interpersonal communication.

“Look, the simplest version is that you’re going back to fix what we didn’t the first time around.” She paused, “And the time after and the time after and the time after… well, ad infinitum, really. But that goes back to the complicated stuff, so,” she drew the word out as she twirled around a flower with a fingertip.

“What can I do to help?” because he was assuming she was referring to the whole thing that centered around his-Hojo’s- _Lucretia’s_ son. And he had _more_ than his fair share to make up for.

She clapped her hands together, excitedly and the wicked gleam in the SOLDIER’s eyes (that really reminded him too much of Yuffie for comfort) made him instantly wonder what he had just gotten himself into, “Great! This is going to be just awesome!”

 

As he was fading out from the dream he could still hear her talking, “Now the thing you need to know is that you’re going to be the first one ‘awake’ as it were. We’re only giving you a few months to fiddle- four to be exact- before we’re pulling you back here, so Gaia can conserve Her energy before she starts in with the others. So make sure your body’s stashed somewhere safe until then, m’kay? Wouldn’t do for some poor shmuck to find your body and burn you, would it? Then you’d be the poor shmuck.”

~~~~~~~

Seconds- _minutes? **hours?**_ \- later he woke and, disoriented, felt around for where he was. He bumped into a wall on his right, and irritated, reached out with his left. He met wall, there, too and tried to turn over with an irritated half-scowl. When his shoulder hit something hard he blinked and put his left had up to feel along the obstruction.

With dawning, and sinking, realization he felt along the seams.

He screamed.


End file.
